Deployment of a High-Latitude Dynamic E-Field Pico-Satellite Sensor Constellation

Abstract

A consortium of organizations has proposed an experiment to map Earth’s high-latitude electric field. The High-latitude Dynamic E-Field (HiDEF) Explorer will observe poorly understood magnetosphere, ionosphere, and thermosphere phenomena. Utah State University Space Dynamics Laboratory is responsible for systems engineering and mission planning for achieving science objectives. A constellation of 90 pico-satellites is deployed at high latitudes over a range of inclinations and altitudes increments that evolve from a densely-packed cluster to a fully global high-latitude coverage over a period of approximately 18 months. Planned constellation “fold-out” allows measurements of high latitude electric fields over wide spatial and temporal scales. Launch and deployment analysis including operational constraints, constellation foldout, and orbit lifetime predictions are described. The deployment analysis recommends a lowest-risk option using Orbital Sciences Corporation Pegasus XL launch vehicle with the Hydrazine Auxiliary Propulsion System (HAPS) system as an upper stage. Pegasus deploys the payload into an initial orbit, and the HAPS delivers the constellation elements to desired initial orbits using a series of 10 burns including an initial trim burn, on-orbit maneuvers, and de-orbit. The paper concludes that using the Pegasus/HAPS option, the required orbits can be achieved with reasonable weight-growth margins but little DV margin.